The writer from Miami says that Ajayi and Landry didn't buy into what Gace was trying to do. This is a bit confusing, because, as far as I know both are pretty good players.

The article also says that "last season he [Ajayi] was the NFL’s fourth-leading rusher and he worked extremely hard in the offseason to increase his value to the team by improving his pass-catching skills. He worked on that and all it entails -- route running, hands, pass protection -- to be on the field on third down." Let's agree that the player has an attitude issue, but it seems to me that could apply to about half or more of the players in the league. This article says that Gace did a similar thing last year. "A year ago, Gase cut a couple of starting offensive linemen weeks into the season. That was the same and yet not quite. He’d been warned about them. He took a chance on them anyhow."

It's not that Ajayi won't have problems here, it just sounds like Gace could have handled the situation a lot better. Maybe Pederson and his emotional intelligence, aided by some of the other players in the locker room will have better results with him.

Also winning tends to keep a lid on problems. Recall that the Eagles won 10 games with Chip before the bot boiled over.

At the moment the Eagles probably feel they have something special. No one wants to mess that up. Notice how admirably quiet and content Smith and Jeffery have been even with so few touches and while N Agholor has gotten most of the attention. As long as they continue to look like a playoff team, they should be okay. However if they don't do well during the upcoming stretch of games vs playoff caliber teams, we could hear some rumblings.

Adversity will come. A team can't loose two Pro Bowl caliber players--arguably Hall of Famers--in Peters and Sproles, plus your QB on D and not be affected. Loosing the locker room leadership of Peters and Sproles can't be good.

Smallwood played very few snaps last week. I wonder if he is still nicked up. Maybe they fear this will be a chronic issue for him.

The Ajayi pickup may be partially in response to the lack of availability of Smallwood. It might also be due to concerns about J Peters' availability next year, especially at OT. Ajayi could be penciled in as the starter next year and replacement for Blount. This frees up their 1st round pick to be used on an OT rather than RB.

This looks like yet another wise move by Howie and his front office team.

QUOTE (Zero @ Nov 1 2017, 05:37 AM)

The writer from Miami says that Ajayi and Landry didn't buy into what Gace was trying to do. This is a bit confusing, because, as far as I know both are pretty good players.

The article also says that "last season he [Ajayi] was the NFL’s fourth-leading rusher and he worked extremely hard in the offseason to increase his value to the team by improving his pass-catching skills. He worked on that and all it entails -- route running, hands, pass protection -- to be on the field on third down." Let's agree that the player has an attitude issue, but it seems to me that could apply to about half or more of the players in the league. This article says that Gace did a similar thing last year. "A year ago, Gase cut a couple of starting offensive linemen weeks into the season. That was the same and yet not quite. He’d been warned about them. He took a chance on them anyhow."

It's not that Ajayi won't have problems here, it just sounds like Gace could have handled the situation a lot better. Maybe Pederson and his emotional intelligence, aided by some of the other players in the locker room will have better results with him.